Why Did This Cell Tower Fall Over? A British Telecom Microwave Site Tour 

Glad you got a friendly response from a local farmer. I remember the Hunshelf tower going up in 1987. Non of us local residents knew about it as Stocksbridge & Deepcar are in Sheffield planning area while the tower is a few yards over the border in Barnsley. Hunshelf is the parish name. The boundary is where the ground drops away towards Stocksbridge. The hillside down to the river in Stocksbridge is Hunshelf Bank. Both names predate the Town of Stocksbridge which grew up around the steelworks in the second half of the 19th century. The small disused tower will be the Steelworks booster which was the first mast up there. It was for improving the coverage with the internal radios in the works, which was certainly active in the mid 1970s if not before. One story was that Stocksbridge messages could be heard at Scunthorpe Works! The Wooden Cross seen in some shots is a local tradition and is illuminated, after dark, over Easter. It used to be at the next farm over to the east but moved there in the 21st century.

The horizontal tower is an old RT Swann with a delta head frame that was used by OUK (Orange) before they obviously merged with T-Mobile to form EE. A lot of the old OUK sites have been decommissioned or you will notice due to the size of the modern multi.port sector antennas they can’t fit them at the top of the old towers so install them below the head frame. They were easy towers to work on. Unlike some of the over crowded monopoles where they’ve had to do head frame upgrades just to fit the antennas, BoB, RRU & amps plus the 5G active antennas

I really like that your static shots are videos, not still photos. It really adds to the ambience to see leaves fluttering, clouds moving, birds flying over, or even a little bit of old tape flapping on the fallen tower!

It's Playing Dead

and thankyou to the kind land owner who let you get those nice shots.

"LOSER!!!" Don't take it to heart, Lewis. We still love you. 🤣

It's just tired and taking a little nap... 😂😂😂

Why don't these companies clean up their garbage? It is a bit of an eyesore, especially with someone living there...

I had litterally ZERO intrest in cell/radio/tv/microwave towers about 6 months. Now I cannot miss a video. What just happened to me? If you ever want to travel further affeild, I can think of a few rather intresting sides further up north including three transmitter sites at the top of chairlifts and another that will probably blow over in the wind within a year of its errection.

One reason is that if it had been left standing, then it would have been liable for council tax or business rates. A shame, but there you are. Great to see these things close up, and much appreciation for a land owner with a positive attitude.

its not fallen over, its pining for the fjords.

More loser tours please! Love these site tour videos!

Do you ever have problems with interference when getting your drone shots? You have some beautiful shots in this video, I really like the one with the fallen tower overlooking the town below (<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="165">2:45</a> ish).

Digital TV transmitter outputs just 2.4W! It seems astonishing to me that significant coverage can be provided with such low power.

We the public take communication for granted. Lewis provides us with the evidence that we really should not be so complacent. Far more effort goes into it than the public would believe. Excellent work.

You are an educator Lewis, and by definition, these are no loosers! Love your work man!

There was a debate over the polarisation….

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="92">1:32</a> - … he got you dead to rights! 😂.

What a lovely bloke to allow you access like that! I was gonna rob it for scrap but I think I'll leave it now 😏😉😁

Who’d have ever though viewing a dead cell tower laying in the weeds would be interesting. But there I stood, captivated, unable to walk away as I was getting ready for work.

"Why Did This Cell Tower Fall Over!?" sounds like the start of a joke!

"It's no fun, it fell right over" -Firesign Theatre reference.

Intro music makes me remember the Manchester canal shipping video. That's probably my favorite video ever.

The offset DAB dipoles provide some beam tilt. i.e. down to the local community. And that dish on the tower is tx and rx, probably a VSAT terminal for data, as you say for telemetry.

Same happened in nz 2 weeks ago with a power pylon. Fell over. 1000s without power

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="288">4:48</a> HE STILL DOES HIS "REVERSE GEEKERY"!!! :-D :-D

It obviously was faulty 😅😂

I wouldn't mind that tower for the back garden. 😃😃

There was a big fuss surrounding corrosion on the legs of the lighter weight swann towers, a lot of surveys looking for corrosion where the legs are cast into the concrete base went on some years ago. I would imagine this could be why it was taken down possibly.

I'm one of those saddos who looks at these antennas and always want to know what they are for so thank you for answering lots of questions I have had in my head for a long time. Have you thought about doing aviation antennas? There is a base station near me I think its called the Wallasey beacon. Its three words location is rather.double.tricks I would love to know more about it thanks

Next you have to make a video about the emly moor collapse then just do bilsdale and so on😂😂

Those poor towers should move to my backyard. I promise I will take good care of them! Driving back from Boy Scouts summer camp. Today I introduced a car load of young men to your channel and the joys of number stations, antennas, and radios in general. Thank you for helping us to pass a long drive.

it was so sad it wasn't born a shiny obelisk that it just kind of went

Would love you to cover the 4 masts at Turners Hill / Oakham in Tividale Oldbury. There are two masts together, one looks like an old Home Office tower one sits on a concrete block. Just down the road you have a very busy Westwrn Power / National Grid tower and all on its own is a rather odd tower, some 3 mobile antennas a strange folded dipole and some whips (oo er missus),at the top.

It’s pining for the fjords

Not gonna lie, watching the opening to the video I thought I'd accidentally switched over to BBC1 to watch Countryfile. 😅

Probably taken down as there may be an obligation to maintain/insure the mast while it is still standing.

Lewis stick that mast on ur roof fetch it here 😂😂

Back in 1995-7 when Orange were rolling out their network you could distinguish their towers from all the rest and check if you were likely to get coverage. They looked chunky and safe and all had the 3 lightening conductors sticking up above the aerials!

The front fell off

You need to visit a site where they make the towers....

We recently had a 220kV pylon fall over in Northland NZ. Took out all power as the other transmission line was down for maintenance. Same cause…….the ‘maintenance crew’ took the bolts out of more than 1 baseplate……

Microwave tower used for cellular network is less picturesque than an old brick chimney, but if the location is right, I guess it’s what gets used.

The land owner has the description dead on...😂

Sounds like the US, we went from 83 channels NTSC to 69 NTSC to 50 or so ATSC 1 then down to 36 channels ATSC1 and 3 now. We still have AM and FM broadcast but no Digital like you do at 200 MHz. We do have satellite radio from several slots that cost money and most new cars have am-fm-satellite installed. Satellite radio covers most of North America so if you are on the road more than 2000 miles a year, may be worth it but I am old fashioned and am-fm in the local area works fine for me or I can stream on my cell phone to the car via Bluetooth. DE N2JYG

Excellent content Lewis! Many thanks for the great shots and comprehensive information! All the best, Rob in Switzerland

Should have got DX COMMANDER to put this up he's the man

Your videos never cease to amaze me!

Yes please more transmitter sites. Thanks

I would like to see more about tv transmission towers,both uhf and vhf. Tell about the power output of them.

Could you please ask the farmer or owner of this unused tower if it's possible to install a Kiwi-SDR receiver there, preferably a vertical multiband fan dipole?

What a waste. I know a few people that would've gladly made use of that tower 😉

Hello, I found a most streak sound the frequency of 582.00 USB stronger from Saudi Arabia luckily you can find any communication in my country because of Communications, Space and Technology Authority. Or CSTA. For short.

😂the two towers had a fight 😂

Actually it was deliberately bend this Way, by some Alliens, who thought this would improve their Reception.

Thanks for this. Is it common for all four UK mobile networks to share towers? Does that mean that a single event (lightning, power outage, fire, vandalism...) can take out all mobile coverage in an area? Ought I to be watching your mesh/lo-ra videos more carefully?

Certainly not very much left around there anymore, is there? Cell, relay TV, relay DAB, and police... all the heavy lifting stuff is long gone.

You got some great shots in this video. Who thought derelict radio towers could look so cool. You should haul a solar Meshtastic node with a magnetic mounted on it up some of those abandoned towers with yer drone, or at least tell Andy…. Just thinking out loud… 👍

"We're here to talk with the minister about the cell tower accident in Sheffield" "Yeah, the one where the tower fell over?" "That's the one" "Yeah, that's not very typical, I want to make that point." at least the tower fell over outside the environment

Your question is "Why Did This Cell Tower Fall Over!?" I think they call it gravity! Those towers not being used should go to some poor ham (like me) so they will be put to good use! 🙂

Towers come down all the time. Ice build up is the main thing, adds more weight than the structure can handle. Rust & human error during maintenance and common. Sabotage and metal theft are becoming more common.

nop, those are not coax cable, but those are power+fiber cable, they are heavily shealded to protect -48v rail and fiber from lightning and elements

This is getting common in the US now. Some bankrupt company's stuff just left in place. We had a broadcaster of a MW transmitter in Alabama Claim their Tower and transmitter was stolen . Even filed a police report. When you look at cite is overgrown like years. Transmitter shack so dusty and dirty does not look like anything their in years was their. some stories of this on youtube . We also had a working station taken down by someone cutting guy lines and letting the tower fall ,and when they got their to check it out the copper feed line was stolen. all that for copper . Power company's got hit with copper theft as well. 73's

Love to see a short vid about the holmfirth relay. Used to live across the other side of the road front it

Thanks RM. Always the Coolest Video's and Information*** Radio On Everyone****

Looks like some nice Ericsson cellular radios and 5G active antennas (small white Square antenna above long rectangle) at the top of the tower. There is a Trend to having the radios themselves at the top of the tower now because of the loss in the coaxial cables.

The prone triangular mast looks like an early Vodafone one. They used to be called 'tripods' after the machines in the War of the Worlds.

I don't understand how they were allowed to leave that tower sitting there, should have been scrapped or moved to a different site.

Why did this cell tower fall over? Because, gravity.

Strange that they went to the trouble of digging a trench into brand new little buildings when they could have used the existing larger building. Seems like quite a waste.

Could the empty lattice tower be from the old analogue police radios?

It fell over because someone loosened the bolts and gravity intervened. I prefer my towers bent and mangled into a twisted mess.

Looks not badly damaged you should buy it set it up at home for your radio doings I have a 85 foot free standing on my land for my internet 🛜 and part of the pirate FM station

I have since last year seen a few Cell Towers been worked on with the 5G roll out but some areas have poor signal for all networks my area has blackouts from house to house even street by street will leave you having to walk 1 or 2 streets from your house to make a call.

Lewis: *_Losers like you?_* Are we related?? 😉

It just wanted to lie down... definitely not a loser, super interesting!

Like Humpty Dumpty, this was a push, not a fall.

So no chance of a Exmouth video? A station so vital aus and US made a town there

All those empty towers... some Hammy's would love to set up a repeater

The tower will be upright again when the end times come.

that tower would look pretty nice in my hard with a few scanner antennas on it

I would love to know what random transmitter site has appeared in my village there is a radio mast but now an big mast with some horizontal dipoles just randomly put in a field shot over country park Oxford

Can only imagine the land owner watching over Lewis as he photographs multiple angles of a scrap tower 😂

Maybe a big wave knocked it over. 😊

Yes, the more of this kind of thing, the merrier.

Simple answer..."gravity "... But will we have 3 days to find out...😄😁

Hi Lewis thanks for sharing. You got some great footage there interesting and informative you have done your research. Would it be possible for you to visit Chesterfield relay mast near Unstone/Dronfield? I know it’s only a relay I receive my Freeview from there. Might be interesting to see around the site. Thanks once again keep up the good work, great videos as always and I catch you further down the coax. 73s for now.

So good they named it twice.

Hi Lewis. In the US broadcasting riggers sometimes call stacked tower sections “sticks”. Just an odd idiom. Poulsbo, Washington

Greetings from the United States! Great tour. Excellent information as always. You always do the best, most informative videos. And, I'm betting I'm not the only person who wishes they could go there, load that unused tower on the back of a flatbed truck and put it up in the back garden! Man, I'd love to have a small but sturdy tower like that! Be well, friend!

WTH is a 'cell tower'?

VHF TV we are going back a bit

Brilliant tutorial video and it's so exciting to know what these things do. Would love you to cover Pye Green / Badgers Hill on Cannock Chase Staffordshire one day ...

love to see more these vids 👍

Mmhmm chill vibes. <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="135">2:15</a>

Whats the song at the end?

I like the music.

I’ve got a fever…and the only prescription is more transmitter site tours!

I wonder if our fallen friend has served a many a Ringway Manchester video 😊

Thanks to you and your new farmer friend for this. Also, you're not a loser. If you were, well what would that make your 142,000 subscribers?!? You're a nerd. Therefore...